The Green Bay Packers have fallen to 6-7 following their embarrassing 24-22 loss to the New York Giants on "Monday Night Football." It was a contest that was hard to watch as both teams made crucial mistakes throughout the game that could have cost them the victory. In the end, however, the Packers made more mistakes than the Giants.
Of course, Joe Barry’s defensive play-calling has been called into question again. Even head coach Matt LaFleur said it needed to be fixed during his press conference on Monday. Additionally, kick/punt returner Keisean Nixon’s fumble in the second half led to a New York touchdown.
Anders Carlson missed a field goal, Nixon blew his coverage on the final drive and the Packers’ special teams committed multiple penalties. Additionally, first-year starting quarterback Jordan Love did not play well for the majority of the game. He overthrew receivers, threw a bad interception and looked much like the struggling quarterback that Packers fans saw in October when Green Bay lost four games in a row.
However, Love also put together a stellar final offensive drive. He marched his team down the field and threw a great touchdown pass to Malik Heath to give Green Bay the lead. While he was far from perfect, he did enough to put his team in a position to win. The defense, though, could not hold up its end of the bargain.
Admittedly, Love was far from the quarterback that defeated the Los Angeles Chargers, Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs in three consecutive games. To be fair, though, the majority of the rest of his teammates didn’t look as good as they did in the last three games either.
What was so discouraging was that the team looked like they had taken steps back in their development rather than steps forward. Love, however, does not think that the loss defines who they are as a team, via Heavy's Sean Deveney.
“Had plenty of opportunities to take advantage of that game and win it, and did not capitalize on those. First half was not up to our standard. So. It’s disappointing.
“I think we got a great team. Obviously, we’re a team that has been in this situation lost some tough games and been able to bounce back. So, I know we’ll be able to bounce back next week.”
The Packers play the Buccaneers, who also have a 6-7 record, on Sunday. Green Bay still holds the seventh and final seed in the NFC Playoffs, but will need to string together some more wins in the final weeks of the season in order to maintain it.
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